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Call for Position Statements

Geography is increasingly important to areas of human-computer interaction (HCI) ranging from social computing to mobile computing to natural user interfaces. Similarly, research in geography focuses more and more on HCI-related topics. There have been few opportunities, however, for intradisciplinary or interdisciplinary knowledge sharing, knowledge creation or community building among those whose interests lie at the boundary of these two fields.

It is in this context that we invite members of the HCI and geography communities to participate in a workshop on Geographic Human-Computer Interaction at CHI 2013, the largest HCI conference and a top-tier HCI publication venue. The workshop will encourage the sharing of research questions, datasets, methods, literature, and tools among “GeoHCI” researchers and practitioners across disciplinary lines. We will also address critical open questions including “What makes spatial special in GeoHCI?” (e.g. What makes a location-based social network different from a traditional online social network?) and “What are GeoHCI’s fundamental principles?” (e.g. Spatial autocorrelation? Gravity Models?)

Interested members of the HCI and geography communities should submit a two-page position statement describing their relevant work by January 11, 2013. Submission details are explained below.One or more authors of accepted statements must register for the workshop and at least one day of the main program of the CHI conference (April 29 – May 2, 2013) .

Submissions should discuss topics that appeal to the broader GeoHCI community. In addition to highlighting the author(s)’s work on GeoHCI-related research questions and applications, we recommend that position statements address some subset of the following questions:

High-level Questions:
• What is ‘special about spatial’ in your area?
• What are, in your view, fundamental principles in GeoHCI?
• What are the most important open GeoHCI-related questions in your area?
Methodology Questions:
• What are the geospatial methods that you have found most valuable in your work?
• What are the datasets and tools you use in your work, and how have they helped you?
Interdisciplinary Questions:
• Are there findings, methods, tools or datasets that you suspect exist across the disciplinary boundary that would help you with your work?
• What fundamental principles of your field are most missing from the other field’s research?
• How can we foster stronger intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration?

Position statements should describe key insights gained from experience working in a GeoHCI-related area rather than merely characterizing work-in-progress. For instance, a researcher involved with local search may share his/her major findings related to adapting search algorithms to a local context. A crisis informatics researcher might give a talk about geospatial technology that best leverages social media in disaster management. A GeoUX specialist working on a major online mapping product may communicate critical insights about map design for mobile devices. It is our hope that such an approach will (1) allow participants to gain an understanding of the state-of-the-art across a variety of topic areas in GeoHCI and (2) facilitate brainstorming on the fundamental GeoHCI issues above.

We are also hosting an optional second day of the workshop that will consist of various "in the field" activities. We are actively seeking proposals for participant-led field trips. Have a great new citizen science app you want to demonstrate? Want to lead an OpenStreetMap data collection activity to bring everyone at the workshop up to speed on the OSM state-of-the-art? Can you guide us on an augmented reality tour of Paris? Let us know!Position statements that are accompanied by proposals for field-based activities will receive extra consideration.

Logistics

• Position statements should be two pages long and in CHI Archive format.
• Position statements are not anonymous. Reviews will be single-blind.
• Authors must submit their statements by Jan-18-2013.
• Please submit positions statements via GeoHCI’s EasyChair site.
• Notifications of acceptance will be e-mailed on Feb-8-2013.
• One or more authors of accepted statements must register for the workshop and at least one day of the main program of the conference, which runs from April 29-May 2, 2013.